The author is talking about `autoconf` or `./configure`. If I understand correctly, these kind of "config" usually involve external dependency -- like if you d

The author is talking about `autoconf` or `./configure`. If I understand correctly, these kind of "config" usually involve external dependency -- like if you don't need x11 support, don't try to link libxcb. I am not sure maintaining a fork would make sense in this case. Maybe a plugin system would do, but that's a non-trivial. Dealing with runtime library dependency is hard.